This invention relates to a machine and to a method for harvesting crop in parallel windrows.
Hay crop and other forage crop is generally cut into swaths or windrows using a swather which has a width of fourteen feet so that the crop is deposited in the windrow in parallel windrows of fourteen foot spacing.
The crop is then left to dry but in many conditions the underside of the windrow remains in a condition where it is not fully dried so it is often desirable to turn the windrow so that the underside is lifted up onto the top of a fresh windrow to allow complete drying.
Many designs of swath turners have been proposed and many machines are currently available on the market place. Generally these machines include a pickup of width of the order of five feet which lifts the crop from the windrow and then a turning system is provided which carries the crop rearwardly and then rolls it over so that it is inverted and then dropped back onto the ground in the inverted condition. Generally these machines include a mould board system or other inverting system which is relatively complicated and is harsh on the crop with a danger of damaging the crop and breaking leaves in many conditions of the crop.
Hay rakes are available which can act simultaneously on two windrows to take the windrows together into a single or common windrow and at the same time mixing the crop so that the portions that were on the underside are now mixed into the interior of the windrow to allow an improved drying action. However the rake systems are extremely harsh on the crop and generally break off much of the leaf material which constitutes the important nutrient supply in the forage material.